Coronation street star hints at career change following tragic on-screen death

Coronation Street has confirmed the tragic death of Craig Tinker (played by Colson Smith), and Weatherfield will be left devastated. On Monday (19th May), Craig was full of enthusiasm as he

started training to become a detective and shadowed DC Kit Green (Jacob Roberts). The copper was also excited about a date that evening after meeting a woman online. However, Kit's mind

was elsewhere after realising he could be the biological dad of tearaway teen Brody Michaelis (Ryan Mulvey), and as his frustration grew, Kit eventually told Craig to put his police uniform

back on. Feeling disheartened, Craig told DS Lisa Swain (Vicky Myers) that he didn't think Kit rated his work and pondered his future as a detective. But Swain encouraged Craig to not

give up, leaving him with a need to 'prove himself'. Elsewhere, Mick Michaelis (Joe Layton) attacked his wife Lou (Farrel Hegarty) after realising she had previously had a fling

with Kit when they were teenagers. Fiz Dobbs (Jennie McAlpine) called 999 to report the disturbance, and Craig responded to the call and took the opportunity to impress Kit and Swain. After

Lou denied anything was going on, she was attacked by Mick only moments later, and Craig chased him. He pulled Mick over in his van and wanted to breathalyse him, having pursued him under

suspicion of him being a drunk driver. However, Mick became convinced that Craig was in corrupt Kit's pocket and knocked the breathalyser out of the officer's hand. Craig once

again sprang into action and wanted to arrest Mick. But as Mick headed to his van and pulled out a baseball bat, Craig tried to talk him down, but Mick brutally used it to attack him, and

smacked him around the head. In Wednesday's episode, Maria Windass (Samia Longchambon) found Craig in the precinct before calling for help. She stayed with him until the ambulance and

police pulled up to the scene. Craig was rushed to hospital with a serious head wound, but later in the episode appeared to regain consciousness. But, as he was about to talk about the

incident, Craig rapidly deteriorated, and he suffered a cardiac arrest. Despite the doctor's best efforts, PC Craig Tinker was declared dead. Colson had played PC Craig Tinker on

Coronation Street for 14 years and has now said goodbye to the ITV soap. Away from the acting, Colson also presents the On the Sofa podcast alongside former Corrie co-star's Jack P.

Shepherd and Ben Price. Speaking to Leicestershire Live, and other press, Colson has opened-up about life after Craig Tinker, and hopes of becoming a presenter. He said: "I make no

secret that I want to be a presenter, that's kind of where my love and passion lie at the moment. "Ever since starting On the Sofa with Jack and Ben and doing different bits of TV,

like with The Games and Big Brother, I enjoy being Colson. "I enjoy telling stories and I enjoy holding a show and being direct down the lens of the camera, but I also enjoy going to

work." Colson also plans to continue with his acting career. He looks to the future about playing a new role other than Craig Tinker. He said: "I'm looking forward to playing

a character that isn't Craig. I'm looking forward to getting back into acting and comedy acting, and really kind of being a character and developing something. "For 14 years

of the same thing, you kind of have a taste for something else." Craig added: "At the moment there are irons in the fire, but I will do the typical showbusiness thing of teasing,

which everyone always thinks there's nothing going on but there actually is. "I got stuff going on, I'm excited. I'm going through the process still of kind of winding

down from having been somewhere for 14 years." CORONATION STREET AIRS MONDAY TO THURSDAY AT 8PM ON ITV AND ITVX